1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a telephone apparatus with an answering function which can receive a notification of a telephone number of a transmitting line.
2. Description of the Related Art
A telephone apparatus with an answering function such that when there is a phone call during the absence, a message of a caller is automatically recorded on the basis of a predetermined procedure, what is called an answering telephone apparatus (answer-phone), has generally been widespread for a long time. Such an answer-phone has a recording medium such as cassette tape or semiconductor memory and can record a voice message of a phone call during the absence into the recording medium.
The user (called hereinafter user A) of such an answer-phone preliminarily registers a message, for example, to promote the recording of a message in response to a phone call during the absence into the answer-phone. The user B who called the user A when the user A is absent speaks a message in accordance with the message reproduced from the answer-phone. Thus, the message is recorded to the answer-phone of the user A. The user A can reproduce the message later and can know what kind of phone call has been made during the absence.
On the other hand, as a service which is provided by a telephone enterprise, a transmission telephone number display service such that a telephone number of a person who called a telephone subscriber is notified and displayed to communicating equipment such as a telephone or the like before response has been embodied. For example, this service has already been put into practical use as xe2x80x9cCaller IDxe2x80x9d in U.S.A. and has also been performed as xe2x80x9cNumber Displayxe2x80x9d in Japan by a system different from that of the Caller ID.
According to the transmission telephone number display service performed as a Number Display in Japan, when there is a reception to a subscriber (hereinafter, referred to as a contractor) who has preliminarily made a contract to receive such a service, information of a telephone number of a transmitting line is transmitted to a terminal apparatus such as a telephone or the like through a contract line before communication. The transmission of the telephone number information is performed by a modem signal. By a telephone which has been prepared on the contractor side and has a modem function and corresponds to the transmission telephone number display service, the received signal is demodulated and decoded, so that the telephone number information of the transmitting line is derived. The derived telephone number information is displayed to predetermined display means provided for the telephone.
On the other hand, the foregoing answer-phone, hitherto, has a problem such that when a plurality of messages have been registered, the messages have to be reproduced one by one from the first message.
Even in the case where the transmitter hangs up in silence, the answer-phone records a silent state as a single message. The conventional answer-phone has a problem such that when a voice message is reproduced, unless the silent state is reproduced, the next message cannot be reproduced.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a telephone apparatus with an answering function in which a necessary message can be promptly reproduced and a transmission telephone number display service is effectively used.
According to the invention, there is provided a telephone apparatus with an answering function corresponding to a transmission telephone number display service to notify of a telephone number of a transmission telephone line, comprising: a first memory for storing a voice message transmitted through the transmission telephone line in an answering function mode; a second memory for storing the notified telephone number of the transmission telephone line and data to make the voice message stored in the first memory correspond to the telephone number; and control means for allowing the telephone number and the presence or absence of the voice message stored in correspondence to the telephone number to be displayed by display means in accordance with the data in the second memory.
As mentioned above, according to the invention, whether a speech has been stored for the telephone number of the transmission line or not is collated by collating means, and the display means for displaying the presence of the speech when the speech has been stored is provided, so that a necessary message can be promptly found.
The above and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and the appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings.